Wednesday
February 26, 2025
7 p.m.
Kopleff Recital Hall
# (hashtag) (2012)
ROBERT TRAUGH | b. 1984
# (hashtag) is a grade 5 piece based on a funk-based 16th note riff that passes around the ensemble.
Robert Traugh is an American composer, conductor, educator, and performer. Seamlessly transitioning through genres and mediums, Robert infuses his work with a distinct perspective rooted in his public school teacher background and jazz studies. Robert has worked with notable performers and has had his music featured internationally at conferences and on streaming platforms.
In addition to composing, Robert has a strong commitment to music education. He served as a band director for 12 years, is currently an adjunct professor at Mary Pappert School of Music, and is involved in various educational projects like YouMusic and the Pittsburgh Creators’ Project. He is pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts at West Virginia University.
Endurance! (2023)
MARIE A. DOUGLAS | B. 1987
Julianna Pinero, conductor
Endurance! takes dips and turns through the ease and tumult of the journey towards our desired outcomes. Earth, Wind and Fire said, “Sing a song, it’ll make a way” and this piece does just that. Containing an African American folk song entitled Don’t be Weary Traveler with a catchy melody and lyrics meant to inspire and empower its singer toward achieving their most trying tasks.
- Program Note from publisher
Marie A. Douglas, a composer hailing from Atlanta, has garnered widespread acclaim for her exceptional talent in seamlessly blending genres and textures within her captivating concert stage pieces. Her music serves as a profound reflection of her inner-city upbringing and her diverse musical experiences, infusing a genuine and authentic essence into each composition. Douglas draws significant inspiration from the African Diaspora, effectively integrating elements of hip-hop and western art music idioms to create compositions that resonate with a wide range of audiences. With her works captivating concert-goers across the United States and Canada, Marie's artistry extends beyond the stage as she collaborates with various ensembles and lends her creative prowess to the world of film music, as well as hip hop and r&b. Marie earned her Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Memphis under the guidance of distinguished mentors Kamran Ince and Albert Nguyen, her unwavering dedication to sonic innovation continues to shape the evolving tapestry of her artistic expression.
Tuttarana (2011)
REENA ESMAIL | B. 1983
Indian-American composer Reena Esmail works between the worlds of Indian and Western classical music, and brings communities together through the creation of equitable musical spaces.
Esmail’s life and music was profiled on Season 3 of PBS Great Performances series Now Hear This, as well as Frame of Mind, a podcast from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Esmail is the Los Angeles Master Chorale’s 2020-2025 Swan Family Artist in Residence, and was Seattle Symphony’s 2020-21 Composer-in-Residence. She also holds awards/fellowships from United States Artists, the S&R Foundation, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Kennedy Center.
Esmail was Composer-in-Residence for Street Symphony (2016-18) and is currently an Artistic Director of Shastra, a non-profit organization that promotes cross-cultural music connecting music traditions of India and the West.
Song for Lyndsay (2005)
ANDREW BOYSEN, JR. | B. 1968
Braeden Weyhrich, conductor
Song for Lyndsay was commissioned by Jack Stamp at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. It is an expansion on a short and unnamed piano piece that Boysen wrote for his wife, Lyndsay, in 2005.
The wind piece is larger in length and scope than the source material; in the score, Boysen describes it as “a very personal work ... more than anything else a simple love song dedicated to Lyndsay and what she has meant in my life.”
The piano piece is used as a starting point, and the material in the winds is either based on or a direct quotation of it. Lyrical in nature and just over five minutes long, solo horn and solo flute are prominent throughout; this scoring is deliberately and symbolically used because Boysen plays the horn and his wife the plays the flute.
- Program Note from publisher
Pageant (1953)
VINCENT PERSICHETTI | 1915-1987
Pageant was commissioned by the American Bandmaster's Association and was completed in January 1953. It is Persichetti's third work for band. It opens in slow tempo with a motive in the horn that is used throughout both sections of the piece. The slow chordal section is succeeded by a lively "parade" section introduced by the snare drum. In the final portion of the work the two principal subjects are developed simultaneously to a lively climax.
The first performance of this work took place on 7 March 1953, at the ABA Convention in Miami, Florida. It was performed by the University of Miami Band, with the composer conducting.
- Program Note by composer
Vincent Persichetti was an American composer, music educator and pianist. Persichetti composed for nearly every musical medium, with more than 120 published works. Although he never specifically composed "educational" music, many of his smaller pieces are suitable for teaching purposes. His piano music, a complete body of literature in itself, consists of six sonatinas, three volumes of poems, a concerto and a concertino for piano and orchestra, serenades, a four-hand concerto, a two-piano sonata, twelve solo piano sonatas, and various shorter works. His works for winds rank as some of the most original and well-crafted compositions in the medium, and his Symphony No. 6 is rightly considered one of the "cornerstones" of the genre.
ENSEMBLE
CONDUCTORS
Dr. Adam F. Dalton
Dr. Adam Dalton is currently the Director of Bands and Associate Professor of Music at Marshall University where he oversees all aspects of a comprehensive band program including concert bands, the Marching Thunder, and basketball pep bands. He also conducts the Marshall Wind Symphony, teaches courses in music education and conducting, and serves as the recruitment director for the music department. Prior to his appointment as Director of Bands, Dr. Dalton served as Director of Athletic Bands at Marshall for five years.
Dr. Dalton is a native of Virginia where he attended James Madison University and earned a Bachelor of Music in Music Education. After graduating, he moved to Atlanta, GA where he taught high school at Milton High School, a large 5A program in Georgia. He then accepted a Graduate Teaching Assistantship at The University of Alabama where he received his Master of Arts in Music Education and a Doctor of Musical Arts in Instrumental Conducting.Dr. Dalton performed with The Cavaliers Drum and Bugle Corps for three years earning two world championships and a gold medal in individual and ensemble. He also marched in various independent winter guards in the southeast, consistently making finals at Winter Guard International. His designing and teaching experience includes the 2008 World Champion Phantom Regiment, The Carolina Crown Drum and Bugle Corps, and currently serves as a caption head for the Madison Scouts Drum and Bugle Corps. He is featured on the WGI video, Toss and served as a clinician and performer for the first everSpinfest Clinic, an annual educational event sponsored by WGI. Dr. Dalton maintains a busy schedule as a designer, consultant, and adjudicator for marching bands and indoor groups both nationally and internationally.
Dr. Dalton worked with every ensemble while at The University of Alabama and was a featured conductor for the 2013 All-State Festival performance with The Alabama Wind Ensemble. His high school band received superior ratings at Large Group Performance Association. As a percussionist, Dr. Dalton performed with the Alabama Wind Ensemble for four years including their 10 day tour of Italy in 2012. He is a founding member of the Alabama Winds, a community band based in Birmingham, AL. He has also participated in the Alabama Wind Ensemble recording project The Glass Bead, available on Albany Records.
Dr. Dalton’s professional affiliations include the Collegiate Band Director’s National Conference, the National Association for Music Education, the Collegiate Music Society, and the National Band Association.
Julianna Pinero
Graduate Assistant Conductor
Julianna Pinero is an alumna of Georgia State University where she earned the Bachelor of Music degree with a concentration in Instrumental Music Education. At Georgia State, Ms. Pinero was a member of several ensembles including the University Orchestra, Panther Band, Panther Basketball Band, Concert Band, and Choral Union. She is a 2019 graduate of Mill Creek High School where she performed in various ensembles.
Ms. Pinero’s teaching experience includes pre-school instrument with Jumpstart Education, strings instruction at Drew Charter School in Atlanta, student teaching in Gwinnett County, and marching band instruction at Cambridge High School in Milton, GA and North Gwinnett High School in Suwanee, GA. In addition, she has served as a visual educators for the Blue Knights Drum and Bugle Corps in Denver, Colorado.
Julianna was selected as a Conducting Fellow for the Atlanta Summer Conducting Institute hosted by Georgia State University in both 2023 and 2024.
Braeden Weyhrich
Graduate Assistant Conductor
Braeden Weyhrich has spent the last three years as the Director of Bands at Hinton Community School in northwest Iowa, where she taught the concert band, jazz band, and athletic bands for students in grades 5-12. Throughout the community, she was the Associate Conductor of the All-America Concert Band and was the Librarian for the Sioux City Municipal Band, in addition to playing woodwinds in both ensembles. As a member of the Iowa Bandmasters Association, she served on served on several district and state committees and was an active member of The Access Collective, a group comprised of Iowa band directors committed to promotion inclusion and connection through music.
Outside of teaching and conducting, Braeden loves playing in pit ensembles for musicals and finding ways to support female composers of the past and present.
Credits:
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